


Desecrated Remains

by Wickedrider98



Category: The Bastards Crew, The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Closure, Kinda?, Other, Phantomness gets one (1) nice thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:07:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19172971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wickedrider98/pseuds/Wickedrider98
Summary: For all intents and purposes, New Midgard and the Yggdrasil system as a whole were gone. Uninhabitable, ripped apart by the Outer Gods leaving them desecrated husks of their former selves





	Desecrated Remains

For all intents and purposes, New Midgard and the Yggdrasil system as a whole were gone. Uninhabitable, ripped apart by the Outer Gods leaving them desecrated husks of their former selves. Phantomness knew this when she had asked Lise to drop her here. Now that Yog Sothoth had left in search of another system to destroy the immediate threat was gone, and seeing as all life had been exterminated she expected a fairly easy trip. What she hadn’t expected, however, was Anansi asking to tag along. Though whether for storytelling reasons, emotional support, scientific research, or some combination of the three she couldn’t tell. But she’d agreed regardless. Fara said that they would only be allowed on the barren planet for a short time, telling them that despite their immortality and the lack of life on it she wasn’t going to let them stay. Any place touched by Yog Sothoth was dangerous, the captain had reasoned, and no being was fit to stay long. Though as Phantomness walked along the scorched dusty ground, she didn’t want to hang around. Anansi touched her shoulder.  
“So, you lived here?” He asked. Phantomness nodded.  
“Yeah,” she murmured, “right here. This was Völuspá, my home city. I was born here, and didn’t leave until I was forced to.”  
“I see.” Anansi’s eyes flitted around the gray landscape, then up to the sky. The colors that swirled and twisted in a horrible dance above them were shades and hues neither had ever seen. Something not created by any being of this universe.  
“God…” Anansi watched the colors swirl, “that’s…”  
“The remnants of Yog Sothoth,” Phantomness didn’t look up, “his colors are all that’s left.”  
“Where is he?”  
“If I had to guess, finding a new planet system to desolate.”  
She walked the cracked street that had once led through her world. Muscle memory was the only thing keeping her body going at this point. The ghosts of the past rushed around her, illusions and memories of the buildings that had once stood tall and proud. As a child Phantomness had thought they would stand forever, though now as she stared at their remnants she was reminded of the building blocks she’d played with at that age. Crushed and discarded, left to be forgotten by history. They passed the remnants of the cafe she’d frequented with Embla once upon a time, its stone exterior now fallen in on itself and shattered remains of the stained glass window in the front now littering the dull ground. Phantomness walked over to the small shimmering gems of glass on the ground and picked up a lilac shard.  
“This was the Svalinn Cafe, I came here with Embla, my best friend and…” Phantomness chose her next words carefully, “an old ex-girlfriend.”  
_The love of my life_ , her heart screamed. The look on Anansi’s face suggested he understood what she’d meant. Phantomness straightened, shoving the piece of glass in her pocket.  
“Let’s go.” she murmured.  
They continued their tour of Phantomness’s past. They were just outside of the center of the town when she caught sight of the place she’d spent the most time. It was destroyed, reduced almost entirely to nothing but a pile of scorched brick, but she knew what it was. Phantomness pulled away from Anansi and rushed to the rubble. Anansi caught up to her, panting as she ran her hand over the crushed stone.  
“This was The Doc’s lab when she lived on New Midgard,” she murmured, “I was her lab assistant. I hated it, but I was bound by a contract so I had no choice but to stay. I… She’s the reason I left.”  
Phantomness walked the familiar layout of the building.  
“This was where the workbench was,” she explained, “The Doc made Jonny’s heart here. Over here was the operating room, I had to help with Jonny’s… Mechanism surgery? I didn’t enjoy it. The recovery room was here, next to it. I slept on a couch outside of it post-Mechanism surgery. It was my job to keep D’Ville on painkillers and whatnot. And over here was the stairwell, my room was the first one on the left, Carmilla was next to me, and Jonny was across from us.”  
Phantomness hadn’t noticed the tears welling in the corners of her eyes until she stopped rambling. So many horrible acts had been committed here, and The Doc had never been a good boss to her. Not to mention the bullets she knew were still embedded in the smashed brick. So why did she feel anything other than relief? Why did her heart feel like a stone in her chest? She sat down on a crumbled wall, her head in her hands. Anansi took a spot next to her.  
“Why did you want to come here Phantomness?” he asked. She shook her head.  
“I don’t know,” her voice was hollow, “I heard the tapes, I heard people talk about it on any planet I visited. I knew it was gone, but I just didn’t want to believe that it I guess. I thought maybe if we came here I’d find just one thing that was still alive. One thing the Outer Gods didn’t take from me. But I was trying to lift a cat, and I get that now.”  
Anansi nodded slowly, patting her shoulder.  
“There is something alive here that the Outer Gods didn’t take from you,” Phantomness cocked an eyebrow at him as he continued, “this town, it’s surrounded by stories. You’ve been showing me all of these places that you loved or hated, and I’m sure you could tell me memories from each place. Those won’t go away.”  
“I guess.”  
When Phantomness saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, she thought she was just imagining things. Yog Sothoth had caused madness and violence when he was here, surely the colors in the sky were enough to cause mild hallucinations. But she noticed Anansi’s gaze had also drifted towards the dislodged brick where two small silver bugs sat, their wings shining like silver.  
“Celestialbugs!” Phantomness's voice was nothing more than a breath, “I don't believe it!”  
She stretched out a hand for the two to crawl onto.  
“I thought they were extinct on New Midgard?” Anansi wondered aloud.  
“Not if you knew where to look for ‘em. And now these little guys have the planet to themselves.”  
“How have they survived this long?”t  
There's nothing here to sustain life with.”  
“They don't need much to sustain life,” Phantomness watched one crawl up her to her shoulder, “and they can focus their energy and conserve it when they can't eat or drink, they'll last for years doing that. Though I'd say these guys definitely need something to eat or they won't last much longer.”  
Over head they heard the sounds of a ship breaking into the atmosphere.  
“That's Cass,” Anansi stood, “we need to get out of here.”  
Phantomness nodded and gathered herself, the bugs still clambering up and down her arm.  
“Fara isn't gonna like that you brought home souvenirs, and what are we gonna do with them when you're off with The Mechanisms?”  
“You can take care of them?” Phantomness looked at him with pleading eyes, “you're the Science Officer after all, and if you learn enough about their biology maybe we could breed them?”  
Anansi groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.  
“Fine,” he muttered, “you win.”  
***  
The Celestialbugs, now called Lyf and Lyfrassir, had taken to their new surroundings a lot quicker than Phantomness had expected. The tank she kept them in was smaller than she would've liked, only about 15 gallons, but it was all they had on board, and Phantomness had resolved to get a bigger one when they landed next. Now that they had food and water in their systems again the two had taken to flying little laps around the enclosure, stopping and landing on the branches and grass she'd used to line the bottom. And, if she turned the lights in her room off, their lights would shine just as bright as they had in their clusters on New Midgard. Though she noticed Lyf had taken to shining a different color than her companion, one that she'd seen swirling in the skies above them. An adaptation to what was left of the planet, Phantomness had guessed. The crew had all gathered into her room, clustered around the table she'd set the tank up on.  
“They're beautiful,” Pip murmured from their spot next to Ikarus, “I've never seen one in person before.”  
“You didn't have them in The City?” Phantomness asked. Pip shook their head.  
“Only in books.”  
“You should've seen the planet before it was The City,” Ikarus assured them, “they had them in droves.”  
“We used them for light on the ship I worked for, they're neat little bugs,” Fara’s eyes didn't leave Lyf, “I've never seen one glow like that before though.”  
“Adaptation to surroundings I think,” Anansi explained, “that's one of the colors Phantomness and I saw in the sky, so I'm thinking Lyf might be just be a little younger than her companion.”  
“Our Science Officer Everyone,” Lise chuckled.  
“What are you planning on doing with them?” Tarsa asked. Phantomness shrugged.  
“They're pets first and foremost,” she explained, “but Anansi and I have talked about a breeding program, so who knows?”  
She yawned.  
“But for now I'm turning in for the night,” Phantomness began shoving the crew out of her room, “which means you all need to get the fuck out.”  
“And here I thought we were all having a moment!” Bishop exasperated as he pushed past Ikarus, whose teeth instinctively embedded in the doctor's shoulder.  
“While it's over, I'm tired, so get out.”  
“Goodnight Phantomness!” Anansi called over his shoulder. She smirked.  
“Yeah yeah, see you all tomorrow.”  
She shut the door behind them and removed her mask to reveal the metal, wires, and diodes that crisscrossed the right side of her face.  
“Hey Cass, shut off the lights would ya’?” Phantomness asked the A.I.  
_Brightness increasing._  
The lights faded to black, and the two insects’ illuminated the room. It took her back to the nights in the forest with Embla, watching them dance in the night air as she settled down into bed.  
“We're all that's left of New Midgard guys,” Phantomness whispered to the bugs as she drifted off, “and I'm gonna keep you safe, I swear on Gleipnir.”  
She took the swirling lights on her ceiling as reassurance before finally giving into her exhaustion.


End file.
